In Hookups, Alcohol Is College Students' Best Friend

It's no secret that casual sex often goes hand-in-hand with alcohol. Everyone knows about the alcohol-laced 2 AM booty call, or the drunken stumble out of a club with the guy you just met. Indeed, virtually every study of casual sex that has examined alcohol has found that, in general, those who hook up tend to drink more. But how common is drinking before casual sex exactly? And are we talking just a couple of drinks or getting so wasted you have no idea how you ended up naked in a stranger’s bed?

A recent study published in the Journal of Sex Research sheds some light on these questions. A research team headed by Jennifer Walsh analyzed alcohol use in almost 500 casual and 1400 romantic sexual intercourse events that happened to 300 college women on a monthly basis over a period of 12 months. Alcohol use was not very common during romantic sex: 20% of romantic encounters involved some drinking and only 5% involved heavy drinking (defined as four or more drinks). Hookups, on the other hand, were a different story: Women drank during 53% of their hookups, and drank heavily during 38% of all hookups.

But not all hookups are created equal. There was an almost perfect linear relationship between drinking and partner closeness: The less known the partner, the more likely women drank before sex, and the more likely they drank a lot. Look at the graph I created based on their data. When the casual partner was an ex-boyfriend, for example, only 30% of hookups involved drinking and 17% heavy drinking. When the partner was a random stranger, however, 89% of hookups involved drinking and 63% involved four or more drinks!

Marijuana use was also more common with casual (15%) than romantic sex (3%), though the type of hookup partner didn’t seem to matter much.

Older (and less detailed) studies support the ubiquity of alcohol during casual sex. Among 200 Canadian students, only 27% reported being completely sober during the majority of their one-night stands and hookups with strangers. The rest were mildly (27%), very (35%), or extremely (9%) intoxicated. In another study of over 500 students, those whose most recent intercourse experience was with a casual partner were much more likely to drink during that encounter (55%) than were those with a romantic partner (22%).

Across various studies, the average number of drinks before hooking up ranges anywhere between 3 and 6 drinks, which, depending on your body mass and tolerance can mean anything from mild intoxication to being pretty wasted. And these were only averages; many people drank far more than six drinks.

Why is drinking so prevalent in hookups?

Alcohol makes you feel a loss of inhibition. Chatting up people you don’t know (or barely know) can be nerve-wrecking; transitioning from just nonsexual chatting to sexual making out can be even more awkward and laden with uncertainty. The less you know the person, the more awkward and uncertain it can get. Alcohol takes care of this for you, making connections with strangers easier, and the transition to sex smoother. “I can talk to beautiful women much easier. It is liquid courage most definitely,” said one 19-year-old guy in a study that analyzed almost 500 “drinking stories” of students from three U.S. universities. “I wasn’t afraid to talk to the guys as I usually do when I am sober,” echoed an 18-year-old girl.

Alcohol also provides an excuse to those who need one. In a world that encourages hooking up but also judges those (especially women) who engage in it too much, many seem to need it. You’re a slut if you hook up with people just becauseyou want to: Good girls don’t actively want to hook up, and being sober means taking full responsibility for your actions. But if you can blame it on the alcohol, you’re absolved of guilt. You can still be a good girl who just happened to make a mistake.

Finally, alcohol is something that people simply expect will lead to hooking up. “It is something that happens when you drink anyways because you lose your inhibitions; that is just a natural part of drinking,” explained one 22-year-old male student. The ‘alcohol à casual sex’ belief is part of the predominant social scripts for what happens, where, how, and why. And as research unequivocally shows, the more you expect that alcohol leads to hooking up, the more likely you are to actually hook up while drinking.

Alcohol is such a facilitator of casual sex among college students, that in study after study, they cite drinking as one of their primary reasons why they hooked up at all.

So is all this drinking before hooking up bad for you? That’s a story for another time.

I didn't drink or smoke until I got into college and realized that it wasn't all that exciting like some people make it to be. Sure your will have a tremendous amount of fun and endless college memories but don't forgot about the senseless things and trouble that comes along with casual drinking.

Alcohol truly does play a role in hooking up on many college campuses. Many girls and guys are insecure and use it to break the ice initially, but in many cases it winds up going alot further. College students hook up with and without alcohol though. I knew many people who had FWBs on a consistent basis. It was a mutual arrangement between the two to de-stress and relax. Their hooking up didn't always involve alcohol and they didn't necessarily meet that person at a party.

Back in the day, I wanted to remain sober so I could give the male flavor of the hour something to moan about. I don't see how someone can be an efficient lover while being drunk. I liked to fully experience every minute of a new conquest. What are some women thinking?

Not all of the girls and guys are drunk when they hook up. I knew plenty that met someone in class and went back to their dorm rooms for a quickie in between classes. But, many freshman girls who are still insecure about themselves and adjusting to the whole college scene tend to drink more to fit in. When they do they over do it and put themselves in vulnerable situations that they regret later. Although, some girls don't regret it, but instead brag about how many guys they hooked up with each semester. But, I do agree with you that sober sex is way better than sloppy drunk sex.

For college students, casual hookups often happen at social events, and social events tend to have alcohol. Sometimes it's people you meet in the dorm or in class, but often it's at parties or bars, and most people there tend to have one or more drinks. (Perhaps that's less true for US college students today than when I was in college, because the drinking age is 21 rather than 18, but I assume drinking ages still aren't enforced very strictly except at bars, nor are marijuana-smoking ages.) Some of them may be drinking to get the courage to talk to other people, or to get drunk, but even those who aren't probably had a drink.

The bad part is sex that wasn't consensual because one or both partners were drunk. Sometimes it's deliberate assault, sometimes it's just bad decision-making by one or both partners (who may have both gone to a bar intending to get drunk and hook up, but still weren't making coherent consent decisions after they were drunk.)